The company is under investigation by Taiwan's FTC and may be fined.

Samsung Taiwan has apparently copped to using “anonymous” comments to astroturf forums, boosting the image of its own phones and denigrating those of HTC, according to a report from PC Advisor published Tuesday. Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission has said it is investigating the matter and may fine the company up to NT$25 million (US$835,000) for its activities.

PC Advisor notes that a site called TaiwanSamsungLeaks uncovered alleged evidence that certain forum comments at OpenTide Taiwan were actually part of a marketing effort for Samsung phones. TaiwanSamsungLeaks asserts that marketers were posing as anonymous users on forums, and would talk down various HTC phones while praising those of Samsung.

In one instance, a poster speaks about his girlfriend’s HTC One X that constantly crashes, and asserts that Samsung’s Galaxy Note is superior to HTC’s Sensation XL. In another, a user posts battery and graphics benchmarks for the Galaxy S III and HTC One X, claiming the former to be the better phone. The English version of the Chinese site is still difficult reading, and the screenshots of the forum aren't translatable inside a browser, but a third highlighted post appears to disparage the Sony Xperia S. Many of the postings took place around a year ago.

Samsung Taiwan stated it had yet to receive any communication from the FTC on the matter, but in a statement to PC Advisor, the company said the “unfortunate incident” did occur, and it has “ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments.” Neither Samsung nor HTC immediately responded to requests for comment, but we will update this article if more details become available.

You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great smartphone wars, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy astroturfed forums in Taiwan."

Man, my HTC phone is horrible. It constantly crashes. One time, I was looking up the instructions for a surgery but the Amaze crashed and the patient died. Luckily, the second time I was prepared. I had my galaxy s3 this time and I was able to successfully follow the youtube video and the patient didn't die. All in all, Samsung's devices are clearly superior.

You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great smartphone wars, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy astroturfed forums in Taiwan."

You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great smartphone wars, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy astroturfed forums in Taiwan."

This literally brought a tear to my eye. Probably because I have to hold in laughing hysterically at work...

I'd like to point out that Taiwan has something of a culture of suing for defamation. It's extremely common among politicians; this is the first time I've seen it in happen between companies, but I'm not terribly surprised. It was bound to happen and will probably become a trend.

I'm kind of wondering how they figured out it was astroturfing? Were they stupidly posting from a known Samsung IP?

Just wondering, because the comments they describe pretty much sound like half the comments posted for any smartphone article on any website in the US. Or any article that mentions: Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony and others.

Hell, there was this hijacking I tried to stop with my HTC thunderbolt, and I just couldn't get the protocol to work right, so I switched to my Galaxy Note 2, and I was able to stop the hijacking, defuse the bomb, AND get the girl!

I was trying to astroturf the forums over at Crackberry with my HTC-1 when the screen went black. Luckily I had my Samsung SIII nearby and was able to testify how great my Nokia Lumia phone was, and finally collected enough money to buy a new Motorola Razr!

I'm not surprised at all. Korean companies and athletes are known for their underhanded tactics in Asia.

Are the underhanded tactics only used in Asia, or are they used everywhere but only known in Asia?

I know personally of someone in Taiwan who earns money by faking clicks on ads. This seems the natural extension of that line of work. I know of no-one in the US who is doing so (which of course means precisely nothing!)

(BTW her [Windows] PC had to be replaced recently because it was so virus-infested, which seems like poetic justice. I expect that, for most people engaged in this, the eventual cost in terms of their screwed up PC, and maybe identity theft, far outweighs whatever meager cash they are making. They'd be a whole lot better off, IMHO, working for a legit organization like Mechanical Turk.)

They have also been strongly suspected as having a part in the Chinese Apple smear campaign. One Chinese celebrity that participated in the phony campaign also supposedly has very close ties to Samsung. Considering the company's reputation of corruption, bullying and things like criminal activity of its head executive in that part of the world this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that knows more about Samsung than just the name on their TV , refrigerator or phone.

I love my Galaxy S 3. However I'm not above calling douchebag when I see one. And yes I see one big 'o douche right now, and for once its not Apple.

"For once?" Apple is a far more ethical company than Samsung and one of the most ethical in the industry, if not the most. If you would jump off the Apple hating bandwagon you would realize that. That fact that you feel you have to qualify your Samsung criticism by trashing Apple doesn't say much about your objectivity.

Edit: 7 down votes, huh? Samsung hired members, perhaps? Considering their ad budget is ten times greater than Apple's it wouldn't be surprising.

Denial or a pay check will not change Samsung's corrupt and bullying reputation in the Far East and in its home market, the convicted criminal activity of the man running it, only to be pardoned by a corrupt South Korean government and media that is intimidated and therefore controlled by Samsung. This is common knowledge in South Korea.

It will also not change what they were caught doing and what is in this article. Anyone that tries to liken Apple's ethics to this piece of crap of a company is either ignorant or delusional and equally corrupt.

If anyone wants to wade through the 551 comments in response to Anandtech's recent review of the HTC One, they'll see clear evidence of just how ludicrous Samsung can be about these paid astroturf campaigns.

Hey Samsung, we get you fighting tooth and nail against Apple's patent trolling, but it's not the same kicking HTC when they're down. Chill.

Isn't a patent troll someone who doesn't use the patents in any products of their own, but only to sue others and get money from them? As far as I know, Apple is using their patents in their own products (and is usually not interested in licensing them to others).

Man, my HTC phone is horrible. It constantly crashes. One time, I was looking up the instructions for a surgery but the Amaze crashed and the patient died. Luckily, the second time I was prepared. I had my galaxy s3 this time and I was able to successfully follow the youtube video and the patient didn't die. All in all, Samsung's devices are clearly superior.

Nice sarcasm, so how much did you get from Samsung?What bothers me about phone reviews is that they are done with phones fresh out the box. I am more interested in what they are like to live with.Going back 3 years, my son and I both got HTC Desire's. The both proved to be bullet proof. My one in particular went through hell. I am an Indistrial Engineer so it had to live in a harsh environment: high temperatures, splashed with water, covered in hydraulic oil, used as a lever and constantly dropped (and sometimes drop kicked). Yet somehow the only signs of it's hard life is a few nicks on the corners and a single scratch on he screen. Since my son is an IT nerd, his looks like it is fresh out of the box.Come replacement time he chose an S3 and I went for a 1X. Within a month the s3 was looking used: the blingy chrome wearing off the edges, now 9 months later it looks like it is 10 years old. The HTC? like new.We also swapped phones for a few weeks to judge who made the best choice. The outcome? I had to demand my phone back.Samsung sells on advertising, not merit. When I see the reviews I often suspected money or other rewards changed hands. Now I know.